As is known, buildings provided with a covering (interior and/or exterior) which incorporates a layer of gold leaf or another precious metal such as silver or platinum leaf, etc., are becoming increasingly common. The existing methods used to cover parts of a building consist first of all in fastening strips made, according to their use, from a variety of materials such as, for example, terracotta, stone, plastic, pressed pasteboard, etc., to said parts. When said strips have been secured firmly in place their visible surface is treated with solvents before applying a layer of precious metal.
It is immediately apparent that the methods used to produce said covering present a plurality of drawbacks.
In particular, the visible surface of the strips is treated and the precious metal is applied after fastening the strips to the building. It is clear that treating said strips with solvents and then applying the precious metal is a complex and costly operation (for instance in case of covering sky-scrapers) and not environmentally friendly, in that toxic substances (solvents) are used in the open air and not in controlled environments. Moreover, the safety concerns for the workers carrying out said operations and the considerable amount of time it takes to perform them must be considered, also bearing in mind that these operations cannot be performed immediately one after the other, but require a sufficient amount of time between one operation and the next, for example for the solvent to dry; said drying process does not take place in a controlled environment, and occurs without any protection from atmospheric factors which could affect the treatment of the visible surface of the strip. Lastly, when the covering is obtained using the method described above the gaps between one strip and the adjacent strips are visible. Although the covering is expensive, the gaps between one strip and the adjacent strips cannot be rendered invisible using the current method of application; said gaps are unattractive.